DETERMINATION OF VOCAL FOLD MUCOSAL WAVE VELOCITY IN AN IN-VIVO CANINE MODEL

The vocal fold traveling wave is essential to normal voice production. The present investigation examined whether the velocity of the travel ing wave (TWV) could be consistently determined in an in vivo canine m odel and if traveling wave velocity is affected by changes in the ampl itude of recurrent laryngeal nerve stimulation (RLNS) and superior lar yngeal nerve stimulation (SLNS). The results showed that traveling wav e velocity increased with an increase in recurrent laryngeal nerve sti mulation at low constant superior laryngeal nerve stimulation, but was poorly correlated with increases in recurrent laryngeal nerve stimula tion at a high level of superior laryngeal nerve stimulation. Furtherm ore, traveling wave velocity was significantly correlated with superio r laryngeal nerve stimulation at constant recurrent laryngeal nerve st imulation. This study demonstrated the feasibility of objectively meas uring traveling wave velocity in vivo.